Why would one claimed to have been bought in Oz come with power point adapter for Oz

The ATX that is shown in the NQExplorers ATX setup you tube clip, curiously shows a non-australian plug on the charger power supply. How many owners have received a power supply with no australian plug on it so far? Is that legal?

Why would one claimed to have been bought in Oz come with power point adapter for Oz

The ATX that is shown in the NQExplorers ATX setup you tube clip, curiously shows a non-australian plug on the charger power supply. How many owners have received a power supply with no australian plug on it so far? Is that legal?

I have but lucky I have travel adaptors to suit.

My name is John. Happily retired and living the high life even if I am broke. Garrett Ace250, Garrett ATX

Hi guys.For what it's worth I hired a standard Garret ATX (Double D coil) when I was back home in Queensland for Christmas. I was pretty keen to try before buying.

Here's a rundown of my experience.

In a nutshell, I found it extremely easy to use and far more stable than my Xterra 705, especially on heavily mineralised ground and beaches. I intended to use the ATX in a number of different conditions to get a feel for it and see if I could justify buying one.

DAY ONEPerformance was great. My first outing was to a beach at Redcliffe, where my first target turned out to be about one third of the ring from a ring pull. Not much really, but still a decent signal considering it was about 55 to 60cm deep.

The site turned out to be covered in junk. The usual bits of foil, bottle tops, ring pulls, sinkers etc. There was a funny hard layer averaging 15cm deep for much of the area that I searched. This consisted of quite hard clay and decomposed rock. Much of the stuff I found was right on top of that layer.Other targets were,

Stainless 3/8 nut and bolt encased in hard black residue which I broke off at home. Corroded soda bomb half coated in the same hard black, sediment? Sinker

There was plenty of other rubbish as well, but the nature of the beach there meant most targets were on the hard layer.

I attracted a bit of attention from several old guys walking along the path that skirts the beach there. One funny old timer even started to scratch around in the sand where I got the signals, without being asked I might add. I got the impression I might have had my hands full if I had detected a valuable ring or something. At about 55cm, it turned out to be a 1/2 oz. sinker, which I gave him as a memento. He seemed happy with that and promptly buggered off. Easily pleased I guess.

DAY TWOA trip to Bongaree, over on Bribie Island was next up. I spent about an hour sniffing around the jetty and came away convinced that had I had the time and patience to really cover the area properly, I would have found everything worth finding down to at least 60 cm or deeper.I even got booming signals off hair pins and a 10 cent coin at that depth.

Eventually, I got sick of digging hair pins etc. and decided to go to Woorim, on the East side of Bribie.

Well, I didn't fare much better over there, but like I said, I was just getting a feel for the ATX, so it was more a case of seeing how stable it was and how deep it would find targets.In an hour or so, all I found was junk, including them bloody hair pins again. Depth again to 60cm plus.

DAY THREETook my family up to an area near Kilcoy for BBQ and a pan in a creek.I had my missus up there about 2 weeks ago and found some alluvial stuff in bedrock cracks. This being the main reason I hired the ATX in the first place. By the time we got up there and I showed them all how to pan, it was lunch time. A few burgers, snags, salad and beers later, I was off with the detector, figuring it was now safe to leave the women to amuse themselves in the creek panning etc. They were also fascinated with some of the rocks they found, including one which may yet turn out to be a well worn yellow sapphire. No more gold but.

In the first 15 minutes with the ATX, I found more pieces of rusty barbed wire in the creek than you can poke a stick at. They had been there so long that, for the most part, all that remained were the knots of wire where the barbs were formed. I did however find one rusty little sliver of wire about 1 cm long, with half the mass of a small tack, in stoney gravel about 55 to 60ch deep. I was amazed. It might have come off the side of the hole as I dug, but I was pretty careful so I don't think it did.

Anyway, a dirty great thunder storm rolled in and caught us all out. Saturated, and by now, quite cool, we decided to head home.

DAY THREEOne last trip on Saturday, saw us up in the area again.The missus and I did a bit of scouting around first, and decided to ask for permission to fossick at one particular farm.After gaining approval, we made our way down to the predominately dry creek bed and started swinging.

The good thing about places like this is, there's usually no foil, ring pulls, bottle tops, and them bloody hair pins etc. I did however find a swag more barbed wire etc.

Unfortunately, the heat of the day became quite unbearable. I'm not so badly affected, but the missus is very fair skinned and prone to sunburn, so we decided to call it quits.

Given more time however, I'm quite sure this area would turn up some useful colour.

SUMMARYEven allowing for my limited experience with the Garrett ATX, I have no doubt it is more than capable of finding even relatively small targets to better than 60cm. and that's with the standard DD coil, never mind the 20" Deepseeker coil.

Once a person got used to the tones, pinpointing, and generally got used to extracting the most from the unit, it will find targets so deep, we'll be sick of digging for them.

I've been researching what to buy as my next detector, and whilst I've been lured by the performance of the Minelabs GPX 5000, the price has had me considering a second hand machine, even considering the obvious pitfalls. But as we all know, even they seem to be very expensive as well.

Not having used a GPX 5000 before, I don't really want to get into a debate about which is better. I also would prefer to buy "Australian", but hell, for the price difference, ease of use, stability, and at least similar performance, why would I shell out 40% more money. That would go a hell of a long way to funding a trip to the goldfields up north. Oh, I forgot to mention, I'd rather trip over in a creek or the surf, and dunk an ATX (water proof to 3 m) than drown a GPX. What a disaster that would be.Another big advantage I see is it's ease of use. A novice operating an ATX would get way better performance than a poorly operated GPX. Oh, I forgot the fact that it's so compact when folded up too. At 20" long, it's gunna find a place in my luggage when I fly home from now on.

I've ordered my Deepseeker package and now that I'm back in Melbourne, I can't wait to hit the Creswick and Daylesford gold fields where I spend most of my time off, while working here.

If you see an white 2001 ex Telstra Landcruiser in your travels, give me a wave. Always up for a chat, as you can probably tell by the essay I just wrote.

Cheers, Ron.PS. I'm not getting any kickbacks or commissions from Garret, but if they were to offer,, well,,,,,,,

Hi guys.DAY ONEPerformance was great. My first outing was to a beach at Redcliffe, where my first target turned out to be about one third of the ring from a ring pull. Not much really, but still a decent signal considering it was about 55 to 60cm deep.Cheers, Ron.PS. I'm not getting any kickbacks or commissions from Garret, but if they were to offer,, well,,,,,,,

Go back to Redcliff, I got 60+ gold rings in 40 hr of detecting over a month. Get out in the water opposite the old lifesaver building on low tide. You will know you are on the right ground when you find soft clay covered with 6" or more with sand. I had to work up to my shorts in water. ATX is fully waterproof my detector was not.

Thanks for the review,I just posted a question in a thread above asking about this machine....What batteries where you using and how long did they last????

Cheers...Sparra

G'day Sparra.I used the no rechargeable batteries that came with the detector. AAs, 8 of them. I didn't flatten them and they still registered 3/4 full after about 4hours on and off in total.The rechargeables that came with it, went back full.Battery life is reputed to be great. In any case, the package comes with a car charger and a plug in adapter (legal, in reference to an earlier remark on the subject), for the mains charging. If you were planning long hours swinging, I'd suggest another set of rechargeables, that way you could have one set on charge and ready for service.Hope that helps.

Hi guys.DAY ONEPerformance was great. My first outing was to a beach at Redcliffe, where my first target turned out to be about one third of the ring from a ring pull. Not much really, but still a decent signal considering it was about 55 to 60cm deep.Cheers, Ron.PS. I'm not getting any kickbacks or commissions from Garret, but if they were to offer,, well,,,,,,,

Go back to Redcliff, I got 60+ gold rings in 40 hr of detecting over a month. Get out in the water opposite the old lifesaver building on low tide. You will know you are on the right ground when you find soft clay covered with 6" or more with sand. I had to work up to my shorts in water. ATX is fully waterproof my detector was not.

Well done Geof.Quite a haul by any ones standards.I reckoned there had to be plenty to find there, but I didn't really have the time that day. Hell, I never even looked at the tide times, much less took a scoop. I only took my modified shovel which is ok in dry and damp sand, but not much chop under water. All I need to do now is butcher one of the wife's stainless saucpans and make a scoop. Cut, wed mesh, handle,,, sweet.

How do you get on with the legalities of finding stuff and keeping/selling it. Aren't you required to hand it to the cops for 3 months or something and then, if not claimed, apply to take ownership? I always wondered about that stuff.

The water proof properties of the ATX in another big factor in my decision to buy one. Besides the beach work, the creeks around the place are gunna get a workout as well.

The only trouble with that theory though is, around Creswick and Dayelsford, it appears there are those using suction dredges around the rock bars, particularly in quieter areas. Now these aren't meant to be used in the creeks in the Regional parks, so it kinda stuffs it for those that go about their fossicking the legal way. Anyway, I might have to get a mask, snorkel and maybe wetsuit. The creeks are shaded for a fair part of the day in that area so tend to be a little chilly. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Awesome review and follow ups, don't shorten your word count Ron, that's exactly the sort of precision feedback I prefer, getting right into the nitty gritty. I would love to hear about any triangle Goldfields experience from you or others if they have a swing. Thanks again.

Awesome review and follow ups, don't shorten your word count Ron, that's exactly the sort of precision feedback I prefer, getting right into the nitty gritty. I would love to hear about any triangle Goldfields experience from you or others if they have a swing. Thanks again.

Glad to oblige.

Haven't got my ATX yet, and to be honest, it's depth on small or even large yellow targets has yet to be personally proven, but from what I've actually seen and done with the hired one I had, it looks promising, especially considering the points I mentioned in my earlier posts.

Going to Daylesford tomorrow. If there's bugger all water, my Xterra 705 will get a run sooner rather than later.

Why would one claimed to have been bought in Oz come with power point adapter for Oz

Could this be a comment from someone who spent heaps on something else, not being able to bear the thought, that something nearly half the price, has the potential to do as well, or at least close to it, as the unit they bought. For the money it has a good many attractive features.

Oh yeah, a power adapter came with the unit I hired as well. It is after all, a yank machine. Seems fair enough to me. At least it had one.

Look don't get me wrong. I haven't used a 5000, but I've spoken to plenty who have. Considering their comments, I just figure I'm not going to be that parochial for such a huge difference in price. Like may people, I hate feeling like I've been ripped off.

If the ATX does what I suspect it will, then honestly, can we really say the 5000 is worth the extra money? At the very minimum, it's an excellent machine for shallow water use at the beach etc, which the 5000 can't do.

Re-Toysnthings post! Could you clarify why you tested the ATX with no threashold i am under the impression that the threashold is important to hear small signals. I have an ATX and unfortunately have only been down to the vic goldfields twice and for short periods but have picked up eight nuggets from .1 to1.4 grams i find the detector can run at max sensativity most of the time however the settings at times needed to be reduced which brings up another question is there any data on the depth loss on each sensativity setting .I am impressed with the detectors ability to get small gold ,i would have been more impressed if it handled all ground on max settings but found dropping the settings to 11 quietened it to a good level but am worried about the loss of dete tion depth